Page 191 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

pulling down and away from his root. He flew over me in a big circle and we
went down hard, my shoulder into his ribs . Perfectly execut ed, but the judge s

didn’t give it to me. I was too tired to be angr y about it. They said we touc he d
the floor at the same time. His ribs woul dn’t agree. No score. I di dn’t ha ve
much left. We felt each other out for ten seconds , then he attacke d, forced a
lean, and spun me on the mat, lovely thr ow. I’m do wn 2–0. Trouble. Gotta dig

deep. F ind something.
Now he changed tactics and decided to hold me off, stalling out the round.
I searched for over a minute, spent; on the video it looks like I ga ve up. My
body went limp, then I saw a hole and expl oded into the same thr ow the y jus t

took away from me, but at the end I pus hed off hard (incidentally aga ins t my
ankle, which was turned ninety deg rees), arched my back, and lande d fl t on
him so they couldn’t argue. M y point , 2–1. Need one more from somewhere.
It felt like one of those video games wher e the endur ance of the fi er is

gone and you have to hold the other guy off, sur vive the barrage, unt il you’ ve
recovered enough to give him one more sho t. That ’s what I had to do, ho ld hi m
off until I had a little bit in me, and then put every ounce of it int o a thr ow
that had to be perfectly timed becaus e if it di dn’t work I might jus t collaps e.

Then I found a little opening. I got into the clinch, trapped his right arm,
faked forward, and drove my whole bei ng into a bicep thr ow. He went do wn, I
landed on him, shoulder to ribs. The tying point . Ther e were ni ne teen seconds
left. All I have to do is hold him off and I win. Except at this moment everything

turned very, very strange. Once again, the judges deci ded no t to allow my
throw. They claimed it was illegal. Now peopl e rus hed ont o the fl or,
Americans and Taiwanese officials. Our team had cameras sho oting the match
and soon a gaggle of officials and pl ayers from both teams were looki ng int o

video cameras. The stadium went ber serk with anger and conf us ion. The judge s
convened, the president of the Taiwanese feder ation, my teacher Master Che n,
my whole team, my opponent’s team, everyone on the mats looki ng at the
videos. T here were fteen minutes of mayhem , bi ckering, po litics.

Interestingly, my opponent’s coach and hi s who le team cons ide red the
ruling against me an outrage—they told me thi s afterward. By all account s my
throw was legal. It was astonishing that ho metown referees woul d do thi s in
the final minute of a match for the world title. After a long di sput e, the judge s

said this challenge would have to be resolved after the match. But for no w, I
was down by one, the throw would not be count ed, and ther e were 19 seconds